The Great "Make Money From Loyalty Points on eBay" Hunt

MSE_Martin
MSE_Martin Posts: 8,272
First Post First Anniversary Combo Breaker
Money Saving Expert
How the great hunt works


What happens when you've amassed a stash of loyalty points, but don’t fancy any of the
rewards on offer? One solution is to buy something with the points, and then flog it on eBay. Now, the challenge is to find rewards that are a) transferable to others within the T&Cs (some vouchers, for example, might not be) and b) will get you the most cash biggest return possible for your points. So I thought I’d tap MoneySavers’ expertise to which loyalty rewards are worth the most.

Please include

Which reward scheme is it? (ie Tesco Clubcard points)
What’s the reward and how many points does it cost? (ie Merlin Entertainments Group Annual pass, costs £23.75 in Clubcard vouchers)
How much does it sell for on eBay? (ie £50)
What’s the return on your points? (ie £50/23.75 = £2.10 per £1 of Clubcard vouchers)

A few handy hints…

To find out how much items have previously sold for on eBay, search for the item and click on “completed listings” on the left hand bar.

Remember to take into account eBay fees and that if many people buy the same thing after reading this post and the market is flooded, the eBay price will start to drop. But the price is a useful rule of thumb.


Please post below to share your ideas

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Martin Lewis, Money Saving Expert.
Please note, answers don't constitute financial advice, it is based on generalised journalistic research. Always ensure any decision is made with regards to your own individual circumstance.
Don't miss out on urgent MoneySaving, get my weekly e-mail at www.moneysavingexpert.com/tips.
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Comments

  • n3phi1im
    n3phi1im Posts: 219
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    Forumite
    Amazon and Boots vouchers always sell well on ebay - you will generally get very near face value for Boots Vouchers and around 90-95% for Amazon vouchers (although just before xmas, they were selling over face value!!). Although don't forget to take in to account your ebay (and PayPal) fees.

    I know you don't get these from Tesco Clubcard but there are lots of Online loyalty schemes (or cashback/pointback schemes) that you can use. For example, Boots vouchers are available (sometimes) through Pigsback (look for the dedicated thread elsewhere on MSE) and you can get Amazon vouchers through RPoints (and maybe iPoints once their site is fixed??).
    • Recommendation: Once you have made the sale and the money is in your PayPal account, pay the ebay fees straight away so what is left is yours.
    • Recommendation 2: The minimum amount you can transfer out of PayPal is £50. However it costs nothing (except a time) to transfer money in or out, so if you really want to move the money out, first move enough in to make it up to £50.
    As per Armoured-Smilers post below, yes, PayPal does have some problems. If you are afraid of being scammed:
    • Don't leave large amounts of money in the account, either spend it or move it to your bank account.
    • Don't leave your CC or bank account attached to you PayPal account when it is not in use.
    • Alternatively, you could set up a new PayPal account (and matching gmail account) specifically for the sale then close the PayPal account once the sale has gone through. It is something of a hassle but if you item is worth a lot, it might be worth it.
    • The buyer is paying the postage so use Signed for Special Delivery. Pay for the extra insureance if the item is really valuable.
  • Please be aware that PayPal is not the best way to keep cash as

    A) Since last year it changed it's registered offices location to Belgium, so as far as the FSA is concerned they no longer come under FSA rules/control, so if they decide that the money you have with them is frozen/whatever due to your account being reported then you can't get to it etc;

    B) They changed their T&C's a while ago to the following. When you send something out to a buyer (who's paid by Paypal) and the buyer claims to have never received it, they can claim against Paypal. Who automatically refund their money by withdrawning it from your Paypal account(if you have a bank account/credit card registered against/with your Paypal account then they will request the money form that account into yours then witrhdraw it. With the credit card you can on most occasions get the credit card company to give you the money back and they claim against Payapl but if it is from your Bank account.........let's say pulling teeth is easier.:confused:).

    You then have to provide evidence that the item was delivered to the buyer. If the buyer is a scammer they will have withdrawn all the money out of their madeup/temporary Paypal account they created for this transaction and close it. This is so that when Paypal agree that the item WAS delivered (a few weeks later from the evidence you send in) then no money is refunded back(IE Paypal NEVER refund from their money, they always refund from the users account to users account), in this case £0 as their is no account now.


    All I say is use Paypal to pay for stuff only, use a credit card to do it with, never leave ANY decent amount of money in your account (only what you can afford to lose) as it is as safe as leaving it with any person on the street (IE sometime they will give it back, sometimes you will never see them again).

    Cheers
    Paul
  • i have sold alton towers 1-day tickets for £22.50 on ebay before now. they cost around £8 in tesco clubcard points (a quarter of the £32 cash price to get into alton towers). it does probably depend on the time of year though, it's best to sell when a school holiday is coming up.

    the merlin annual pass doesn't sell well - i think people just don't search for them. i bought one on ebay 2 years ago because it cost much less than 2x the clubcard points. i had enough clubcard points to buy my own pass but because they were going so cheap on ebay i found better uses for my points.

    converted deals vouchers e.g for restaurants sell for around 3 times their cost on ebay. they can usually be used for other deals too.
    'bad mothers club' member 13

    * I have done geography as well *
  • I cashed in some Best Western (hotel chain) loyalty points for amazon vouchers and sold them on ebay for face value (£40) - after paypal and ebay charges the total was £38.26.
    Mortgage Free thanks to ill-health retirement
  • top_drawer_2
    top_drawer_2 Posts: 2,469 Forumite
    hi,

    I have a "Free" £5 facial skincare voucher from Boots ... I got one last week which I went into Boots to use today as the end date is 29/01 then got this one ... I was really struggling to find anything that a) I wanted and b) was within my price range as the stuff that was within the offer was really expensive and when I tried to use it against face wipes or hand cream the asst said the voucher wasnt valid ... I hate to just throw it away. Any suggestions?

    Jen
  • fmhm
    fmhm Posts: 327 Forumite
    it works on the RoC wipes. They are a red packet.
    Try looking on the Boots thread (on the grabbit board) for more items to buy with this voucher.
    hth
    'I love being married.It's so great to find the one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life' :heartpuls

  • top_drawer_2
    top_drawer_2 Posts: 2,469 Forumite
    thanks!!

    Jen
  • corris3
    corris3 Posts: 47 Forumite
    I have yorkshire tea vouchers ready to cash in and also a whole load of nescafe points if I can find them... would really like to cash in on something that has a resale value so with yorkshire tea looks like the mug or apron but with nescafe i am considering a magazine subscription on the basis that the mags may contain a) money off vouchers or b) competitions /giveaways

    any suggestions as to what would be best?
  • barginunter
    barginunter Posts: 1,253 Forumite
    Jen_L wrote: »
    hi,

    I have a "Free" £5 facial skincare voucher from Boots ... I got one last week which I went into Boots to use today as the end date is 29/01 then got this one ... I was really struggling to find anything that a) I wanted and b) was within my price range as the stuff that was within the offer was really expensive and when I tried to use it against face wipes or hand cream the asst said the voucher wasnt valid ... I hate to just throw it away. Any suggestions?

    Jen

    Time Delay hand cream £5, TD cleansing cream £4.50. Voucher should go through no probs, if not try another SA.
  • hi,

    Yes, I have printed the list out of stuff which is either free/low cost using these vouchers. I will pop in Boots tommorrow and get my freebies, when I went in today it was really hard to find anything that was cover that wasnt £15-£20. I've also joined the Parenting Club LOL!

    Jen
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